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I'm sorry, before I asked any questions, I needed to have this one answered, but I couldn't post on meta (not enough rep).

I would like to ask a question about my JavaScript Node program, but I'm afraid of whether or not people might look at my code and steal it or something. I know, I shouldn't be so judgmental of people, but still.

Thank you.

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    \$\begingroup\$ From the footer text: user contributions licensed under cc-wiki with attribution required. This means that code you post is protected by an open-source license so anyone can use it but they have to provide credit. If you don't want anyone to use it then don't make it public. \$\endgroup\$ – seand Mar 23 '12 at 1:26
  • \$\begingroup\$ dang, are there any other sites like codereview where I don't have to allow people to use it for commercial gain? I'd be fine if it was open source and it had to stay open source \$\endgroup\$ – Matt Mar 23 '12 at 1:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ refactormycode.com do I have to open-source my code here? \$\endgroup\$ – Matt Mar 23 '12 at 1:34
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    \$\begingroup\$ you know what, shuck it, I'm just going to post my code \$\endgroup\$ – Matt Mar 23 '12 at 1:36
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@seand's answer is the best regarding legalities. Odds are, a lot of potentially proprietary code is posted for review on this site. The key is scoping down both the answer you need (review style you are looking for) and what code base you provide. Many of the questions are highly isolated to a specific problem that the characteristics lend themselves to something that would benefit the community to learn from or about. In short, we all also learn from each other.

I would recommend whether or not you can scope down something that you would like to "share" for review. If you are highly concerned about it like you seem to be I would recommend one of two options: 1) mock up an example that expresses the specific scenario you would like reviewed without conveying the root proprietary knowledge or 2) focus on having another group review it...most likely a trusted group that can adhere to an NDA.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ the code I'm writing is highly specific, but after debating with myself, I decided that it wasn't that big of a deal, and I'm helping the community if my problem is solved. In the end, the benefits outweighed the risk. I decided that it isn't like I'm typing my whole web app code, it's an isolated basic boilerplate I was going to use to do another thing, so yeah, not that big of a deal \$\endgroup\$ – Matt Mar 23 '12 at 1:49
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm glad the decision became easy, and that you've sided with helping the community learn. Thanks Matt. \$\endgroup\$ – Randy Mar 23 '12 at 1:53
  • \$\begingroup\$ the somewhat ironic thing is that this has gotten more answers and views than my actual question: \$\endgroup\$ – Matt Mar 23 '12 at 2:46
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I think it's worth adding that most use of Javascript involves distributing the source code in any case. In the typical case of using it on a public-facing web site, it's trivial for anybody who visits the web site to get the full source code on any page you serve them.

As such, unless you're in a somewhat unusual position (e.g., use only on a private intranet, by a small number of highly trusted people) it's not likely to make a whole lot of difference either way. The obvious difference is that most of the people here are programmers who are much more likely to respect your wishes about your code.

As already noted, the other obvious point would be to post only very limited pieces of the code here. If you have to post all the code somewhere, do so where all the rights you care about are protected, and link to it from here, with only the most relevant pieces actually included in a post here.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ the somewhat ironic thing is that this has gotten more answers and views than my actual question: codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/10269/… hopefully a number of you all might know the solution? \$\endgroup\$ – Matt Mar 23 '12 at 2:47
  • \$\begingroup\$ Hopefully somebody does, but I must confess that I can't contribute much on it. \$\endgroup\$ – Jerry Coffin Mar 23 '12 at 3:06

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